Systems and methods for managed asset distribution in a distributed heterogeneous storage environment

ABSTRACT

Embodiments of systems and methods for the rules based distribution of managed content across heterogeneous storage distributed in a network environment are disclosed. In particular, certain embodiments may employ entity rules in association with a content management system. An entity rule may be a rule specifying a set of parameters and a destination secondary storage location. When the entity rule is evaluated by the content system, a set of content managed by the content management system responsive to the rule may be determined using the parameters of the rule. Responsive content can be determined, for example, by searching the content of the content management system based on the parameters. Responsive content may be moved from the primary storage location of the content management system to the secondary storage location specified by the entity rule.

RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of, and claims a benefit of priorityunder 35 U.S.C. 120 of, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 17/005,119,filed Aug. 27, 2020, entitled “SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR MANAGED ASSETDISTRIBUTION IN A DISTRIBUTED HETEROGENEOUS STORAGE ENVIRONMENT”, whichis a continuation of, and claims a benefit of priority under 35 U.S.C.120 of, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/955,334 filed Apr. 17, 2018,entitled “SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR MANAGED ASSET DISTRIBUTION IN ADISTRIBUTED HETEROGENEOUS STORAGE ENVIRONMENT,” now U.S. Pat. No.10,853,425, which claims the benefit of priority under 35 U.S.C. 119 toU.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 62/487,820 filed Apr. 20,2017, entitled “SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR MANAGED ASSET DISTRIBUTION IN ADISTRIBUTED HETEROGENOUS STORAGE ENVIRONMENT”, all of which are fullyincorporated herein by reference for all purposes.

COPYRIGHT NOTICE

A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains material towhich a claim for copyright is made. The copyright owner has noobjection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent documentor the patent disclosure, as it appears in the Patent and TrademarkOffice patent file or records, but reserves all other copyright rightswhatsoever.

TECHNICAL FIELD

This disclosure relates generally to the field of content management.Specifically, the disclosure relates to systems and methods for therules based distribution of managed content across heterogeneous storagelocations distributed across a computer network environment. Even moreparticularly, this disclosure relates to embodiments of systems andmethods for the distribution of managed content across heterogeneousstorage locations using granular, non-filesystem parameter based rulesdefining searches.

BACKGROUND

With the ever increasing prevalence and proliferation of electroniccontent (also referred to as assets) has come a commensurate need forthe management of such content. Content management systems do just that,allowing for the management of such content by controlling the access,editing, updating, versioning, etc. of content and allowing users tosearch for and obtain such content One particular type of contentmanagement systems is referred to as media managers or media managementsystems. These media management systems serve as content managementsystems for particular types of media content, such as images, videos,audio files, documents, etc. Whether managing media assets or othertypes of content, this type of content management is in no way trivial.In certain contexts, such as in an enterprise setting, there may be tensof millions of assets that need to be managed, and users may desire tohave rapid access to these assets from a variety of distributed accesspoints. While content management systems may have primary storage thatmay satisfy the user's access requirements, this storage may beprohibitively expensive for storing the millions of large content filesoften involving petabytes of assets managed by a content managementsystem.

Accordingly, there is a need for improved storage with respect tomanaged assets and, in particular, a need for fast, efficient, storageof managed assets that is also cost efficient and scalable.

SUMMARY

As discussed, content management systems, especially in an enterprisesetting, may manage tens of millions (or more) of assets which users maydesire to have rapid access to from a variety of distributed accesspoints. To facilitate content management in conjunction with suchdistributed access, content management systems may be organized aroundone or more content management servers that provide services and storageassociated with the management of such content. Content managementservers like these may be deployed in the cloud, or otherwisedistributed. These content systems may utilize primary storage (e.g.,local, internal or near-line storage) that is usually fast enough tosatisfy the user's access requirements with respect to speed. Suchstorage may, however, be prohibitively expensive for storing themillions of large content files often involving petabytes of assetsmanaged by a content management system.

Users or providers of these content management systems may thus desireto store assets using less costly options such as networked attachedstorage (NAS) or cloud based storage such as that provided by, forexample, Amazon Web Services (AWS) Simple Storage Services, StorageGateway or Glacier, Google's Cloud Storage, Microsoft Windows AzureStorage, IBM's SmartCloud Enterprise-Object Storage, etc. The use ofthese other storage options in association with a content managementsystem may, however, present a number of difficulties. One large problemis that the distribution of these assets across a number of otherstorage locations that may not be under the operation or control of theoperator or user of the content management system may add another layerof management complexity to what are already difficult and complexcontent management tasks.

Moreover, adding to this complexity, these secondary storage locationsmay be heterogeneous, meaning their interfaces or how they store contentmay be different both from the primary storage utilized by the contentmanagement system and from other secondary storage options. Thus,configuring a content management system to utilize one or more of thesesecondary storage locations may not be straightforward or universallyapplicable to other secondary storage locations. Another problem thatmay present when an attempt is made to use such secondary storagelocations in the management of content is that these secondary storagelocations may not have the requisite speed needed to satisfy the latencyrequirements of users of such content management systems.

Embodiments as disclosed herein attempt to remedy at least some of theseproblems through systems and methods for the rules based distribution ofmanaged content across heterogeneous storage distributed in the networkenvironment. In particular, certain embodiments may employ entity rulesin association with a content management system. An entity rule may be arule specifying a set of parameters and a destination secondary storagelocation. When the entity rule is evaluated by the content system, a setof content managed by the content management system responsive to therule may be identified or otherwise determined using the parameters ofthe rule.

Responsive content can be determined, for example, by searching theassets of the content management system based on the parameters. Infact, in one embodiment, the parameters of an entity rule may bespecified as a search comprising a set of search parameters andoperators. These parameters may include non-filesystem based parameterssuch as those based on the content of assets, campaigns or businessunits associated with assets, expiration dates, or almost any othernon-filesystem based parameter that may be maintained by a contentmanagement system. These non-filesystem parameters may also includekeywords, that may have been extracted from the content of assets orindexed. Such a search may be, for example, a search saved on thecontent management system and assigned a particular name as a shorthandreference. The responsive content can be determined by executing such asearch on the content of the content management system. The search can,in turn, be executed by a search engine on the content management systemusing, for example, an index maintained by the search engine or contentmanagement (or other) metadata maintained by the content managementsystem.

The content (e.g., determined as responsive to the search) may be movedfrom the primary storage location of the content management system tothe secondary storage location specified by the entity rule. Themanagement data (e.g., metadata) associated with moved content isupdated with an identifier for the secondary storage location and anasset identifier that can be used to locate the content within thesecondary storage location. An identifier for the secondary storagelocation may include an identifier for a content manager of the contentmanagement system that is configured to access an account associatedwith the content management system at the secondary storage locationusing an interface offered by that secondary storage location.

These entity rules may be executed once or be defined to recur at someinterval (e.g., daily, weekly, monthly, etc.) or over some pre-definedperiod of time (for the next week, month, year, etc.) as is desired orspecified by the rule itself. As may be understood, if an entity rulehas been previously evaluated, certain assets within the set of contentdetermined to be responsive to the rule using the parameters of the rulemay have been previously moved to the secondary storage locationassociated with the entity rule (e.g., when the rule was previouslyevaluated). Accordingly, in one embodiment, the determined set ofcontent may be refined by determining the current location of each assetof the determined set of content by accessing the metadata for the assetstored at the content management system. The asset may be removed fromthe set of content determined to be responsive to the entity rule if theasset currently resides at the secondary storage location specified bythe entity rule.

Subsequently to the asset being placed under the management of thecontent management system, a user may desire to access the managedasset. The user's access to the asset may be facilitated by, forexample, an interface allowing a user to directly access assets managedby the content management system or by a search interface allowing theuser to search the assets management by the content management system.When a request to access a particular asset is received, the metadataassociated with the asset may be accessed to determine the currentlocation of the asset. If the asset is determined to currently reside inthe primary storage of the content management system, the asset may beprovided to the requesting user. For example, the user may be provided alink or other network location by which the user can access or downloadthe requested asset from the primary storage location to the user'sdevice.

If the asset is determined to currently reside in a secondary storagelocation or is in transit to the secondary storage, in one embodimentthe asset may be restored to the primary storage using the contentmanager associated with the secondary storage location. When the assetis returned to the primary storage location, the asset may be providedto the requesting user. For example, the user may be provided a link orother network location by which the user can access or download therequested asset from the primary storage location to the user's device.

In one embodiment, if it is determined that the asset currently residesin a secondary storage location, or is in transit to the secondarystorage, the asset may be provided from the secondary storage locationto the user without restoring the asset to the primary storage location.In particular, the asset can be brought into memory at the contentmanagement system (e.g., a memory other than the primary storagelocation) and streamed or otherwise provided from the memory to therequesting user without restoring the asset to the primary storagelocation.

In certain embodiments, the provisioning of the asset to the user may bebased on the size of the asset. If the size of the asset (e.g., asdetermined from metadata associated with the asset) is under a thresholdsize (e.g., which may be defined by an administrator of the contentmanagement system), the asset may be streamed from the secondary storagelocation to the content management system and then directly to therequesting user. If, however, the size of the asset is over (or equal)to the threshold size, or processing need to be performed on the asset(e.g., transformation, transcoding or other manipulations), the assetmay be retrieved from the secondary storage and placed into a workingstorage at the content management system. If needed, any processing canthen be performed on the asset in the working storage. The asset inworking storage (e.g., as processed or originally retrieved) can then bestreamed or otherwise provided to the requesting user without restoringthe asset to the primary storage location.

If the asset is determined to currently reside in a secondary storagelocation (or is in transit to the secondary storage location), it can bedetermined if the secondary storage is currently available or offline.This status of the secondary storage location may, for example, be keptby the content manager associated with the secondary storage location.If the secondary storage location is unavailable (e.g., offline orinaccessible), the user may be presented with a message stating therequested asset is currently unavailable. Additionally, in certainembodiments, the user may be presented with a message that the user willbe notified when the requested asset becomes available. When therequested asset is subsequently accessed at the secondary storagelocation or restored to the primary storage location, the user may benotified that the requested asset is available and provided with a linkor network location where the asset can be accessed.

A message that the content is unavailable may also be provided to a userbased on the secondary storage location at which the content resides. Incertain embodiments, the secondary storage location may be of a typedeemed too slow to facilitate real-time responses to a user (e.g., in atime frame the user expects for accessing content through a contentmanagement system). In such cases, the user may be presented with amessage stating the requested asset is currently unavailable and thatthe user will be notified when the requested asset becomes available.When the requested asset is subsequently accessed at the secondarystorage location and restored to the primary storage location, the usermay be notified that the requested asset is available and provided witha link or network location where the asset can be accessed.

Alternatively, in some embodiments, instead of restoring the requestedasset to the primary storage location, if the asset is determined tocurrently reside in the secondary storage, a direct link to the asset inthe secondary storage may be provided to the requesting user. Forexample, the user may be provided a link or other network location bywhich the user can access or download the requested asset from thesecondary storage location to the user's device. Such a link or locationmay, for example, be created based on the metadata stored in associationwith the asset at the content management system.

Embodiments as disclosed may thus provide a number of advantages. As oneadvantage, embodiments of the content management systems disclosed offeroperators or users unparalleled flexibility and granularity with respectto the distribution of assets across storage locations by allowing theseoperators or users to define the distribution of managed assets acrossheterogeneous networked storage locations according to almost anycriteria desired, including non-filesystem based parameters. Inparticular, almost any parameters or operators that may be used tosearch for content with respect to the content management system may beused to specify the entity rules by which content of the contentmanagement system may be distributed across these networked storagelocations. Additionally, by using a content management frameworkincluding content managers corresponding to a particular secondarystorage location, the generality of the content management system'soperation may be retained while offering the ability to work withmultiple heterogeneous types of secondary storage locations.

Accordingly, many of the advantages provided by embodiments includetechnical improvements to the functioning of computers and computersystems, including content management systems and servers. Suchimprovements may speed access to content (or reduce latency) by keepingcertain assets in primary storage while moving other assets to secondarystorage locations. The assets kept in primary storage locations can beassets associated with certain groups or business units that may tend toproduce smaller or more current assets. By keeping assets associatedwith those groups and moving larger or less current assets todistributed storage locations, the access times to those retained assetsmay be reduced, not only because they are retained in primary storage,but additionally because there are fewer, and smaller, files retained inthe primary storage. Thus, cost efficient, scalable storage can be takenadvantage of while improving system performance and throughput.

These, and other, aspects of the disclosure will be better appreciatedand understood when considered in conjunction with the followingdescription and the accompanying drawings. It should be understood,however, that the following description, while indicating variousembodiments of the disclosure and numerous specific details thereof, isgiven by way of illustration and not of limitation. Many substitutions,modifications, additions and/or rearrangements may be made within thescope of the disclosure without departing from the spirit thereof, andthe disclosure includes all such substitutions, modifications, additionsand/or rearrangements.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The drawings accompanying and forming part of this specification areincluded to depict certain aspects of the disclosure. It should be notedthat the features illustrated in the drawings are not necessarily drawnto scale. A more complete understanding of the disclosure and theadvantages thereof may be acquired by referring to the followingdescription, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings inwhich like reference numbers indicate like features.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram depicting a distributed network environmentincluding an embodiment of a content management system.

FIG. 2 is a diagram of one embodiment of an interface for defining acontent manager

FIGS. 3A, 3B, and 3C are diagrams of embodiments of an interface fordefining or editing an entity rule.

FIG. 4 is a flow diagram for one embodiment of a method for rules baseddistribution of managed assets to distributed networked storagelocations.

FIG. 5 is a flow diagram for one embodiment of a method for accessingmanaged assets distributed across networked storage locations.

FIGS. 6A and 6B are block diagrams depicting the schema and contents ofembodiments of tables that may be used to support distribution of assetsacross networked storage locations.

FIGS. 7A and 7B are block diagrams depicting the schema and contents ofembodiments of tables that may be used to support entity rules.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The invention and the various features and advantageous details thereofare explained more fully with reference to the non-limiting embodimentsthat are illustrated in the accompanying drawings and detailed in thefollowing description. Descriptions of well-known starting materials,processing techniques, components and equipment are omitted so as not tounnecessarily obscure the invention in detail. It should be understood,however, that the detailed description and the specific examples, whileindicating some embodiments of the invention, are given by way ofillustration only and not by way of limitation. Various substitutions,modifications, additions and/or rearrangements within the spirit and/orscope of the underlying inventive concept will become apparent to thoseskilled in the art from this disclosure.

As discussed above, users or providers of content management systems maydesire to store assets using a variety of storage options, includingthose that may be faster, larger or less costly, distributed across anetwork environment, including cloud based storage options or the like.These desires are not readily satisfied, however, as the use of thestorage options may present a high degree of additional complexity tothe management of content in a network environment.

Embodiments as disclosed herein attempt to remedy at least some of theseproblems through systems and methods for the rules based distribution ofmanaged content across heterogeneous storage distributed in the networkenvironment. In particular, certain embodiments may employ entity rulesin association with a content management system. An entity rule may be arule specifying a set of parameters and a destination secondary storagelocation. When the entity rule is evaluated by the content system, a setof content managed by the content management system responsive to therule may be identified or otherwise determined using the parameters ofthe rule.

Responsive content can be determined, for example, by searching theassets of the content management system based on the parameters. Infact, in one embodiment, the parameters of an entity rule may bespecified as a search comprising a set of search parameters andoperators. These parameters may include non-filesystem based parameterssuch as those based on the content of assets, campaigns or businessunits associated with assets, expiration dates, or almost any othernon-filesystem based parameter that may be maintained by a contentmanagement system. These non-filesystem parameters may also includekeywords, that may have been extracted from the content of assets orindexed. Such a search may be, for example, a search saved on thecontent management system and assigned a particular name as a shorthandreference. The responsive content can be determined by executing such asearch on the content of the content management system. The search can,in turn, be executed by a search engine on the content management systemusing, for example, an index maintained by the search engine or contentmanagement (or other) metadata maintained by the content managementsystem.

The content (e.g., determined as responsive to the search) may be movedfrom the primary storage location of the content management system tothe secondary storage location specified by the entity rule. Themanagement data (e.g., metadata) associated with moved content isupdated with an identifier for the secondary storage location and anasset identifier that can be used to locate the content within thesecondary storage location. An identifier for the secondary storagelocation may include an identifier for a content manager of the contentmanagement system that is configured to access an account associatedwith the content management system at the secondary storage locationusing an interface offered by that secondary storage location.

Referring now to FIG. 1 , a distributed network environment including anembodiment of a content management system for the rules baseddistribution of managed content across heterogeneous storage distributedin the network environment. The distributed network environment includesa content management system 120 communicating over a computer network130 with various user computing device 104 and distributed storagelocations. Content management system 120 may be, for example a mediamanager or digital asset manager such as OpenText's Media Manager (OTMM)or Digital Asset Manager (DAM). The network may include the Internet, aninternet, an intranet, a Local Area Network (LAN), a Wide Area Network(WAN), a cellular network, a wireline or wireless network, some othertype of computer network or some combination of networks. Thedistributed storage locations may include, for example, a networkedattached storage (NAS) 102 or one or more cloud based storage locations112 distributed in a cloud environment 110.

A cloud based storage location 112 may be data storage in which thephysical storage on which the data is stored may span multiple servers(and often physical locations), and the physical environment istypically owned and managed by a cloud storage provider. These cloudstorage providers are responsible for keeping the data available andaccessible, and the physical environment protected and running. Userscan obtain accounts from the cloud based storage providers to utilizestorage capacity at the cloud based storage location 112 to store user,organization, or application data. Cloud storage locations 112 may beaccessed through a co-located cloud computer service, a web serviceapplication programming interface (API), by applications that utilizethe API or by some other manner. Examples of such cloud based storagelocations 112 include Amazon Web Services (AWS) Simple Storage Services,Storage Gateway or Glacier, Google's Cloud Storage, Microsoft WindowsAzure Storage, IBM's SmartCloud Enterprise-Object Storage, etc.

Content management system 120 may employ a content management frameworkcomprises of one or more content managers 128. Each content manager 128may be an instance of a particular class or type of connector or contentmanager having appropriate methods or procedures for accessing oneparticular type, or a set of types, of NAS 102 or cloud storagelocations 112. For example, a content manager 128 may be configured toaccess an AWS Simple Storage Services (S3), Microsoft Windows Azure BlobStorage, the Google Cloud, etc. Each instance of a content manager 128may be configured to access a particular cloud storage location 112 orNAS 102 by providing the instance of the content manager 128 with thecredentials (e.g., account name, password, keys, etc.) needed to accessan account at the cloud storage location 112 associated with the contentmanagement system 120 (e.g., obtained by the operators or owners of thecontent management system 120).

The content managers 128 may offer a similar set of interfaces (e.g.,put, read, delete) such that the details of the underlyingcommunications with the cloud storage provider 112 or NAS 102 areabstracted from a user of the content managers 128 and each contentmanager 128 may be accessed in a substantially similar manner. FIG. 2depicts one embodiment of an interface depicting the configuration ofcontent managers in a content management system. Embodiment of thesecontent managers 128 will also be better understood with reference tothe attached Appendix which describes one embodiment of classes andinterfaces that may be implemented by, or used to implement, contentmanagers.

Users at user devices 104 may access the content management system 120through an interface 122 provided by the content management system 120.This interface 122 may be, for example, a web based interface accessiblethrough a browser at a user's device 104 such as an HTML (e.g., HTML5interface). The interface 122 may also include an API, RepresentationalState Transfer (REST) or another type of web services or otherinterface. The user may thus use the interface 122 to provide assets tothe content management system 120 such that the assets 142 can bemanaged or to access these assets 142 at a later point. Assets 142 mayalso be provided for management by the content management system 120 ina wide variety of other manners, as will be apparent.

When an asset 142 is provided to the content management system 120, itmay be initially stored at the primary storage location 140 of thecontent management system 120. The provided asset 142 may also beindexed as is known in the art, such that an index 146 of assets 142 maybe maintained in an index storage 144 such as a Solr search platform.The index 146 may, for example, be an index of keywords extracted, ordetermined, from the content of the assets 142. Content managementsystem 120 may therefore include a search engine 124 (which may be aSolr based search engine) through which content 142 managed by thecontent management system 120 may be searched based on index 146. Thesearch engine 124 may offer an interface accessible by users at theiruser device 104 (e.g., through a web based interface that may beincorporated with interface 122) or that may be accessed through a webservices interface such as a REST interface, or an API.

Content management server 120 may manage assets 142 stored in primarydata storage 140 and secondary data storage locations 102, 112 usingcontent management engine 166. While in some embodiments, the primarydata storage location 140 may be local, on premise or near-line storage,in other embodiments the primary storage location 140 may also be NAS102, cloud based storage 112 or another type of storage locationaccessible over network 130 of a desired speed. In one embodiment, eachasset 142 is associated with content management metadata 150. Thecontent metadata 150 may include an object identifier associated withthe asset such as a globally or universally unique identifier (GUID) toidentify objects, the size of a file, a timestamp indicating a last savetime, an identifier for the storage location 102, 112, 140 where theasset 142 currently resides or an asset identifier that can be used tolocate the asset 142 within the storage location 102, 112, 140 where theasset 142 currently resides. An identifier for the storage location 102,112, 140 may include an identifier for a content manager 128 of thecontent management system 120 that is configured to access the storagelocation 102, 112, 140. An asset identifier may include a UniversalResource Locator (URL), object ID, or path where the asset 142 islocated at the storage location 102, 112, 140 where the asset 142currently resides.

Content rule engine 126 may distribute assets 142 managed by the contentmanagement system 120 across the storage locations 102, 112, 140distributed in the computer network environment based on entity rules162 of the content management system 120. In particular, in oneembodiment, users may access interface 122 to define entity rules 162.An entity rule 162 may be a rule specifying a set of parameters and adestination secondary storage location such as a cloud based storagelocation 112 or NAS 102. The entity rule 162 may also include a timeperiod for evaluation. This time period may include a start or end dateor time or a recurrence interval (e.g., once, hourly, weekly).

In one embodiment, the parameters of an entity rule 162 may be specifiedas a search comprising a set of search parameters and operators. Thesesearch parameters may include, for example, values determined inassociation with the asset 142 as indexed in index 146 or metadata 150in metadata storage 152. Specifically, the entity rule 162 may includenon-filesystem parameters that may be associated with the contents ofassets or the content management of assets such as those based on thecontent of assets, campaigns or business units associated with assets,expiration dates, content management, business or workflow metadata, oralmost any other non-filesystem based parameter that may be maintainedby a content management system. These non-filesystem parameters may alsoinclude keywords, that may have been extracted from the content ofassets or indexed in index 146.

In this manner, the entity rules 162 may serve to identify assets thathave similar or related content, are associated with the same groups,business, campaigns, etc. or almost any other criteria desired. Suchgranularity is possible at least because the entity rules 162 allow thespecification or arbitrarily complex searches that include parametersthat can be associated with the contents of the asset, the management ofthe asset, the use of assets or other data that exists or is determinedat a higher level than the filesystem storing the assets. Such a searchmay be, for example, a search saved on the content management system 120and assigned a particular name as a shorthand reference. The responsivecontent can be determined by executing such a search on the content ofthe content management system. FIGS. 3A, 3B and 3C depict embodiments ofan interface for defining or editing an entity rule 162. When an entityrule 162 is defined and saved, it is stored in entity rule store 164 ofthe content management system 120. In particular, the entity rule 162may include or reference one or more saved searches. These savedsearches may be defined using content management metadata, includingbusiness or workflow metadata, as shown in FIG. 3C.

Content rule engine 126 may evaluate the entity rules 162 stored in theentity rule storage 164 to distribute the managed assets 142 of thecontent management system 120 to the various secondary storage locationssuch as cloud based storage 112 or NAS 102. In particular, the contentrule engine 126 may access an entity rule 162 and determine if theentity rule 162 should be further evaluated based on a start or end dateor time interval of the entity rule 162. In one embodiment, the entityrule 162 may have a time stamp associated with it indicating when theentity rule 162 was created or last evaluated. Thus, this determinationcan be based on the time stamp and the start or end date or timeinterval associated with the entity rule 162 and the associated timestamp of the entity rule. The content rule engine 126 can update thistime stamp when the entity rule 162 is evaluated.

If it is determined that the entity rule 162 should not be furtherevaluated, the content rule engine 126 may select another entity rule162 for evaluation. If however, the content rule engine 126 determinesthe entity rule 162 should be further evaluated, the content rule engine126 may obtain the parameters of the entity rule 162 and determine a setof content 142 managed by the content management system 120 responsiveto the rule. Responsive content can be determined, for example, bysearching the assets 142 of the content management system based on theparameters. The content rule engine 126 may, for example, submit theparameters of the entity rule 162 as a search to search engine 124 andreceive a set of identifiers for responsive content 142 back from thesearch engine 124 based on a search performed by the search engine 124.In one embodiment, such a search may be, for example, a search saved onthe content management system 120 and assigned a particular name as ashorthand reference. The content rule engine 126 can specify the savedsearch to the search engine 124 and receive a set of identifiers forresponsive content 142 back from the search engine 124 based on thesaved search being performed by the search engine 124.

As the entity rule 162 may be executed once or be defined to recur atsome interval, or over some pre-defined period of time, if an entityrule 162 has been previously evaluated, certain assets within the set ofcontent determined to be responsive to the rule using the parameters ofthe rule may have been previously moved to the specified secondarystorage location 102, 112. Accordingly, in one embodiment, thedetermined set of content 142 may be refined by the content rule engine126 by determining the current location of each asset 142 of thedetermined set of content by accessing the metadata 150 for the asset142. An asset 142 may be removed from the set of content 142 determinedto be responsive to the entity rule 162 if the asset 142 currentlyresides at the secondary storage location 102, 112 specified by theentity rule 162.

The content rule engine 126 can then move the determined responsivecontent 142 from their current storage location to the secondary storagelocation 102, 112 specified by the entity rule 162. In particular, foreach identified asset 142, the content rule engine 126 accesses themetadata 150 associated with that asset 142 to determine the currentstorage location 102, 112, 140 and identifier of the asset 142associated with that storage location. In one embodiment, the currentstorage location 102, 112, 140 may be an identifier of a content manager128 associated with the storage location 102, 112, 140 where the asset142 currently resides.

To move the content to the secondary storage location 102, 112, thecontent rule engine 126 may provide the asset 142 or the currentidentifier thereof (e.g., with respect to the primary storage location140 or other storage location 102, 112 where the asset 142 currentlyresides) to the content manager 128 associated with the secondarystorage location 102, 112 specified as the destination by the entityrule 162. The content rule engine 126 can update the status of the asset142 in the metadata 150 associated with asset 142 to reflect it iscurrently in transit (e.g., a status of “unavailable” or “in transit”).When the content manager 128 stores the content at the secondary storagelocation 102, 112, the content manager 128 may return an identifier forthe moved asset 142 with respect to the secondary storage location 102,112. This identifier may be a path or object identifier that can be usedto locate the content at the secondary storage location 102, 112. Thecontent rule engine 126 can then update the metadata 150 of the asset142 with the identifier of the secondary storage location 102, 112 wherethe asset 142 resides (e.g., the secondary storage location specified bythe entity rule 162) and the identifier of the location of the asset 142with respect to that secondary storage location 102, 112 (e.g., theobject identifier, URL, path, etc.). Again, the identifier of thesecondary storage location 102, 112 may be an identifier of the contentmanager 128 for accessing that secondary storage location 102, 112. Thecontent rule engine 126 can also update the metadata 150 of the asset142 with a status indicating the asset 142 is available (“available”).Alternatively, the status may indicate the asset 142 is unavailable(e.g., “unavailable”), to indicate the asset is not in the primary datastorage 140.

During operation of the content management system 120, a user may accessan asset 142 using interface 122 or through search engine 124. Theuser's access to the asset 142 may be facilitated by, for example, usingthe interface 122 to allow a user to directly access assets 142 managedby the content management system 120 or by a search interface 124allowing the user to search the assets 142 managed by the contentmanagement system 120. When a request to access a particular asset 142is received, the content management engine 166 may access the metadata150 associated with the asset 142 determine the current location of theasset 142. If the asset 142 is determined to currently reside in theprimary storage 140 of the content management system 120, the asset 142may be provided to the requesting user through the interface 122. Forexample, the user may be provided a link or other network location bywhich the user can access or download the requested asset 142 from theprimary storage location 140 to the user's device 104.

If the asset 142 is determined to currently reside in a secondarystorage location 102, 112, or is in transit to the secondary storage, inone embodiment the asset 142 may be restored to the primary storage 140.In particular, the content management engine 166 may provide the assetidentifier for the asset 142 to the content manager 128 associated withthe secondary storage location 102, 112 where the asset 142 currentlyresides. When the asset 142 is returned to content management engine166, the content management engine 166 may place the asset 142 in theprimary storage location 140 and update the metadata 150 associated withthe asset 142 to reflect that the asset 142 is located in the primarystorage location 140. The content management engine 166 can then providethe asset 142 to the requesting user through the interface 122. Forexample, the user may be provided a link or other network location bywhich the user can access or download the requested asset from theprimary storage location 140 to the user's device 104.

In certain embodiments, if it is determined that the asset currentlyresides in a secondary storage location 102, 112, or is in transit tothe secondary storage, the asset 142 may be provided from the secondarystorage location 102, 112 to the user without restoring the asset to theprimary storage 140. In particular, the content management engine 166may provide the asset identifier for the asset 142 to the contentmanager 128 associated with the secondary storage location 102, 112where the asset 142 currently resides. When the asset 142 is returned tocontent management engine 166, the content management engine 166 canthen provide the asset 142 to the requesting user through the interface122 without restoring the asset to the primary storage location 140. Forexample, the asset can be streamed or otherwise provided from thecontent management engine 166 to the requesting user.

In certain embodiments, the provisioning of the asset 142 to the usermay be based on the size of the asset 142. If the size of the asset 142(e.g., as determined from metadata 150 associated with the asset 142) isunder a threshold size (e.g., which may be defined by an administratorof the content management system), the content management engine 166 mayprovide the asset identifier for the asset 142 to the content manager128 associated with the secondary storage location 102, 112 where theasset 142 currently resides. When the asset 142 is returned to contentmanagement engine 166, the content management engine 166 can thenprovide the asset 142 to the requesting user through the interface 122without restoring the asset to the primary storage location 140. If,however, the size of the asset 142 is over (or equal) to the thresholdsize, or processing need to be performed on the asset (e.g.,transformation, transcoding or other manipulations), the asset 142 maybe retrieved from the secondary storage 102, 112 by content managementengine 166 (e.g., using a content manager 128) and placed into a workingstorage at the content management system 120. If needed, any processingcan then be performed on the asset in the working storage. The contentmanagement engine 166 can then provide the asset 142 in working storage(e.g., as processed or originally retrieved) to the requesting userthrough the interface 122 without restoring the asset to the primarystorage location 140.

In one embodiment, if the asset 142 is determined to currently reside ina secondary storage location 102, 112 (or is in transit to the secondarystorage location), it can be determined if the secondary storage 102,112 is currently available or offline. This status of the secondarystorage location 102, 112 may, for example, be kept by the contentmanager 128 associated with the secondary storage location 102, 112. Ifthe secondary storage location 102, 112 is unavailable (e.g., offline orinaccessible), the user may be presented with a message stating therequested asset is currently unavailable and that the user will benotified when the requested asset 142 becomes available. When therequested asset 142 is subsequently accessed at the secondary storagelocation 102, 112 (or restored to the primary storage location 140), theuser may be notified that the requested asset 142 is available andprovided with a link or network location where the asset can beaccessed.

A message that the content is unavailable may also be provided to a userbased on the secondary storage location 102, 112 at which the contentresides. In certain embodiments, the secondary storage location 102, 112may be of a type deemed too slow to facilitate real-time responses to auser (e.g., in a time frame the user expects for accessing contentthrough a content management system 120 from a user device 104). In suchcases, the user may be presented with a message stating the requestedasset 142 is currently unavailable and that the user will be notifiedwhen the requested asset 142 becomes available. When the requested assetis subsequently accessed at the secondary storage location 102, 112 andrestored to the primary storage location 140, the user may be notifiedthat the requested asset 142 is available and provided with a link ornetwork location where the asset can be accessed.

Alternatively, in some embodiments, instead of restoring the requestedasset 142 to the primary storage location 102, 112, if the asset 142 isdetermined to currently reside in the secondary storage, a direct linkto the asset 142 in the secondary storage 102, 112 may be provided tothe requesting user. For example, the user may be provided a link orother network location by which the user can access or download therequested asset 142 from the secondary storage location 102, 112 to theuser's device. Such a link or location may, for example, be createdbased on the metadata 150 stored in association with the asset 142 atthe content management system 120.

Moving now to FIG. 4 , a flow diagram for one embodiment of a method forrules based distribution of managed assets to distributed networkedstorage locations is depicted. Embodiments of such a method may be, forexample, utilized by embodiments of content management system 120 asdiscussed above. Initially, it can be determined if any entity rules ofa content management system need evaluating (STEP 410). Thisdetermination may be made by evaluating each of the entity rules todetermine any entity rules that should be further evaluated based on astart or end date or time interval of each of the entity rules. Forexample, each entity rule may have a time stamp associated with itindicating when the entity rule was created or last evaluated. Thus,this determination can be based on the time stamp and the start or enddate or time interval associated with the entity rule and the associatedtime stamp of the entity rule.

For each of the entity rules which is determined should be furtherevaluated (LOOP 412), the parameters of the entity rule can bedetermined (STEP 420). The entity rule may specify a set of parametersand a destination secondary storage location where the parameters of anentity rule may be specified as a search comprising a set of searchparameters and operators. Using the parameters of the entity rule, acontent search may be executed (STEP 430). This content search may beexecuted by performing a search on the content of the content managementsystem based on the parameters. For example, the parameters (e.g., andoperators) of the entity rule may be submitted as a search to searchengine a set of identifiers for responsive content managed by thecontent management system received back in return to the search (STEP440). The secondary storage location specified by the entity rule canalso be determined (STEP 450).

For each asset of the responsive set of content (LOOP 452), metadataassociated with the asset may be determined (STEP 460) and the currentlocation of the asset determined from the metadata of the asset (STEP470). If the entity rule has been previously evaluated certain assetsresponsive to the rule using the parameters of the rule may have beenpreviously moved to the secondary storage location specified by theentity rule. Accordingly, in one embodiment, it can be determined if thecurrent location of the asset is the same as the secondary storagelocation specified by the entity rule (STEP 480). If the currentlocation of the asset as specified by the metadata is the same as thedestination secondary storage location specified by the entity rule,evaluation of that asset may stop and the next asset of the responsiveset of content may be evaluated (Y branch of STEP 480).

If the current location of the asset is not the same as the secondarystorage location specified by the entity rule (N branch of STEP 480) theasset may be moved to the destination secondary storage locationspecified by the entity rule (STEP 490). In particular, the metadataassociated with that asset can be accessed to determine the currentstorage location and identifier of the asset associated with thatstorage location. In one embodiment, the current storage location may bean identifier of a content manager associated with the storage locationwhere the asset currently resides. To move the content to thedestination secondary storage location, the asset or the currentidentifier thereof (e.g., with respect to the storage location where theasset currently resides) may be provided to the content managerassociated with the secondary storage location specified as thedestination by the entity rule. The content manager for the secondarystorage location can then transfer the asset from the current storagelocation to the destination storage location associated with thatcontent manager.

The asset can then be deleted from the original storage location (STEP492) and the metadata associated with the asset updated to reflect theasset's current location at the destination secondary storage location(STEP 494). In particular, when the content manager stores the asset atthe destination secondary storage location, the content manager mayreturn an identifier for the moved asset with respect to the secondarystorage location. This identifier may be a path or object identifierthat can be used to locate the content at the secondary storagelocation. The metadata of the asset can be updated with the identifierof the secondary storage location where the asset resides (e.g., thesecondary storage location specified by the entity rule) and theidentifier of the location of the asset with respect to that secondarystorage location (e.g., the object identifier, URL, path, etc.). Theidentifier of the secondary storage location may, for example, be anidentifier of the content manager for accessing that secondary storagelocation. The content rule engine can also update the metadata of theasset with a status indicating the asset is available (“available”).Alternatively, the status may indicate the asset is unavailable (e.g.,“unavailable”), to indicate the asset is not in a primary data storagelocation.

Looking now at FIG. 5 , a flow diagram for one embodiment of a methodfor accessing managed assets distributed across networked storagelocations is depicted. Embodiments of such a method may be, for example,utilized by embodiments of content management system 120 as discussedabove. During operation of the content management system, a user may canaccess an asset using an interface or through a search engine. In oneembodiment, the content management system may receive a search (STEP510) through a search interface allowing the user to search the assetsmanaged by the content management system. The search can be performed,for example, using the index of the assets management by the contentmanagement system (STEP 520) and the search results returned to the user(STEP 530).

The user can then make a request to the content management system toaccess a particular asset (STEP 540). When the request to access theparticular asset is received, the content management engine may accessthe metadata associated with the asset determine the current location ofthe asset (STEP 550). It can then be determined if the asset isavailable for immediate download (STEP 560). This determination can bemade based on the metadata associated with the requested asset. Inparticular, the determination may be made based on the current locationof the requested asset and a status of the current location of therequested asset.

If the asset is determined to currently reside in the primary storage ofthe content management system, the asset may be determined to beavailable for immediate download and may be provided to the requestinguser through the interface (STEP 570). For example, the user may beprovided a link or other network location by which the user can accessor download the requested asset from the primary storage location to theuser's device.

If the asset is determined to currently reside in a secondary storagelocation, or is in transit to the secondary storage, the asset may bedetermined to be currently unavailable. In one embodiment, if the assetis determined to currently reside in a secondary storage location (or isin transit to the secondary storage location) to determine if the assetis available for immediate download (STEP 560) it can be determined ifthe secondary storage is currently available or offline. This status ofthe secondary storage location may, for example, be kept by the contentmanager associated with the secondary storage location

In the asset is deemed to be currently unavailable, a delay notificationmay be sent to the user (STEP 580). After the delay notification, therequested asset may be restored to the primary storage of the contentmanagement system (STEP 590). In particular, the content managementengine may provide the asset identifier for the asset to the contentmanager associated with the secondary storage location where the assetcurrently resides. When the asset is returned, it is placed in theprimary storage location and the metadata associated with the asset isupdated to reflect that the asset is located in the primary storagelocation. The content management engine can then provide the asset tothe requesting user through the interface (STEP 592). Specifically, inone embodiment, the user may be notified that the requested asset isavailable and provided with a link or network location where the assetcan be accessed.

FIGS. 6A and 6B are block diagrams depicting the schema of embodimentsof tables that may be used to support distribution of assets acrossstorage locations. As can be seen, there is a U_O_I_S_(UOIS) table 610.This table may be used to store or represent an asset. This UOIS tablemay have three columns that point to three rows in the OBJECT_STACKStable 612. The OBJECT_STACKS table 612 has the directions to retrievethe asset by using a combination of STORAGE_ROOT in the CONTENT_MANAGERStable and the OBJECT_NAME_LOCATION from the OBJECT_STACKS table 612. TheOBJECT_STACKS table 612 may also have the fields, OBJECT_ID which is aprimary mapped back to the UOIS table 610, OBJECT_NAME which is a shortname of the asset, OBJECT_NAME_LOCATION is the content manager specificinformation on where the file for the asset is actually stored and theCONTENT_MANAGER_ID which is the key to the CONTENT_MANAGERS table 614which includes the Content Managers that are currently valid or activefor the system.

In particular, content managers are registered in the CONTENT_MANAGERStable 614, with the CONTENT_MANAGER_ID filed being a unique identifierfor a registered content manager; the CONTENT_MANAGER_CLASS field beinga class name for the implementation of the content manager interfaces;the NAME field being a short descriptive name; and the STORAGE_ROOTbeing a value identified a root location for content storage for thestorage location associated with that content manager.

In addition to the CONTENT_MANAGERS table 614 there is theCONTENT_MANAGERS_ATTR table 616. This table may be used store additionalconfiguration information. The information is stored as key\value pairswhich are provided to the content manager class during initialization.This table may be utilized to associate information with a contentmanager implementation. For example, suppose the implementation makesuse of a third party storage facility residing on a separate computer.The IP address of this computer can be stored in theCONTENT_MANAGERS_ATTR table. For example, this could be stored as“main_ip_address” for ATTR_NAME and 202.165.701.141 for ATTR_VALUE.

The content manager that is chosen to store an asset is determined uponimport. If no content manager is defined during import, a defaultcontent manager identifier is looked up from the Media Managementconfiguration (e.g., in an administrator setting). Specifically, theconfiguration attribute may be IMPORT\SERVER\DEFAULT_CONTENT_MANAGER_ID.In one embodiment, the content manager identifier may be explicitly setduring import of an asset. A user may specify which content manager touse during import on a job or asset. To set the content manager to usefor an asset, a content manager identifier of an ImportJob object may beset. Similarly, to set the content manager on a per asset basis, thecontent manager identifier of a ContentDataRequest may be set in theImportAsset object.

FIGS. 7A and 7B are block diagrams depicting an embodiment of a schemafor tables that may be utilized by a content management system to storeentity rules or saved searched for entity rules. Specifically, in oneembodiment, a saved search for an entity rule may be stored in a set oftables. A SEARCHES table 702 includes an entry for each saved search foran entity rule with an ID for that search. The ID may serve as a key tothe other tables, which include a CONDITION_SETS table 710 that includesuser entered search criteria. These search criteria may include one ormore values for content management or other metadata or data maintainedby a content management system and associated expressions (e.g., Booleanoperators), such as the group or business unit names or other metadataor data maintained by the content management system for an asset. TheCONTEXT_SAVED_SEARCHES table 720 may include keyword search terms andassociated expressions that may have been entered by a user. Thesekeyword terms may pertain to the content of the assets and may becontained in, for example, an index created by a search engine of thecontent management system. A FIXED_CONDITION_SET table 730 may be atable that includes hidden (e.g., from a user) search criteria for thesaved search that may be added by the content management system to thesave search. These hidden search criteria may be added by the contentmanagement system for a host of reasons, including security or accessrestrictions, reasons of efficiency or speed, administratorconfiguration, or other reasons.

Although the invention has been described with respect to specificembodiments thereof, these embodiments are merely illustrative, and notrestrictive of the invention. The description herein of illustratedembodiments of the invention, including the description, is not intendedto be exhaustive or to limit the invention to the precise formsdisclosed herein (and in particular, the inclusion of any particularembodiment, feature or function is not intended to limit the scope ofthe invention to such embodiment, feature or function). Rather, thedescription is intended to describe illustrative embodiments, featuresand functions in order to provide a person of ordinary skill in the artcontext to understand the invention without limiting the invention toany particularly described embodiment, feature or function, includingany such embodiment feature or function described. While specificembodiments of, and examples for, the invention are described herein forillustrative purposes only, various equivalent modifications arepossible within the spirit and scope of the invention, as those skilledin the relevant art will recognize and appreciate. As indicated, thesemodifications may be made to the invention in light of the foregoingdescription of illustrated embodiments of the invention and are to beincluded within the spirit and scope of the invention. Thus, while theinvention has been described herein with reference to particularembodiments thereof, a latitude of modification, various changes andsubstitutions are intended in the foregoing disclosures, and it will beappreciated that in some instances some features of embodiments of theinvention will be employed without a corresponding use of other featureswithout departing from the scope and spirit of the invention as setforth. Therefore, many modifications may be made to adapt a particularsituation or material to the essential scope and spirit of theinvention.

Reference throughout this specification to “one embodiment”, “anembodiment”, or “a specific embodiment” or similar terminology meansthat a particular feature, structure, or characteristic described inconnection with the embodiment is included in at least one embodimentand may not necessarily be present in all embodiments. Thus, respectiveappearances of the phrases “in one embodiment”, “in an embodiment”, or“in a specific embodiment” or similar terminology in various placesthroughout this specification are not necessarily referring to the sameembodiment. Furthermore, the particular features, structures, orcharacteristics of any particular embodiment may be combined in anysuitable manner with one or more other embodiments. It is to beunderstood that other variations and modifications of the embodimentsdescribed and illustrated herein are possible in light of the teachingsherein and are to be considered as part of the spirit and scope of theinvention.

As used herein, the terms “comprises,” “comprising,” “includes,”“including,” “has,” “having,” or any other variation thereof, areintended to cover a non-exclusive inclusion. For example, a process,product, article, or apparatus that comprises a list of elements is notnecessarily limited only those elements but may include other elementsnot expressly listed or inherent to such process, product, article, orapparatus.

Furthermore, the term “or” as used herein is generally intended to mean“and/or” unless otherwise indicated. For example, a condition A or B issatisfied by any one of the following: A is true (or present) and B isfalse (or not present), A is false (or not present) and B is true (orpresent), and both A and B are true (or present). As used herein,including the claims that follow, a term preceded by “a” or “an” (and“the” when antecedent basis is “a” or “an”) includes both singular andplural of such term, unless clearly indicated within the claim otherwise(i.e., that the reference “a” or “an” clearly indicates only thesingular or only the plural). Also, as used in the description hereinand throughout the claims that follow, the meaning of “in” includes “in”and “on” unless the context clearly dictates otherwise. The scope of thepresent disclosure should be determined by the following claims andtheir legal equivalents.

As is known to those skilled in the art, computers can include a centralprocessing unit (“CPU”), at least one read-only memory (“ROM”), at leastone random access memory (“RAM”), at least one hard drive (“HD”), andone or more input/output (“I/O”) device(s). The I/O devices can includea keyboard, monitor, printer, electronic pointing device (for example,mouse, trackball, stylus, touch pad, etc.), or the like.

ROM, RAM, and HD are computer memories for storing computer-executableinstructions executable by the CPU or capable of being compiled orinterpreted to be executable by the CPU. Suitable computer-executableinstructions may reside on a computer readable medium (e.g., ROM, RAM,and/or HD), hardware circuitry or the like, or any combination thereof.Within this disclosure, the term “computer readable medium” or is notlimited to ROM, RAM, and HD and can include any type of data storagemedium that can be read by a processor. For example, a computer-readablemedium may refer to a data cartridge, a data backup magnetic tape, afloppy diskette, a flash memory drive, an optical data storage drive, aCD-ROM, ROM, RAM, HD, or the like. The processes described herein may beimplemented in suitable computer-executable instructions that may resideon a computer readable medium (for example, a disk, CD-ROM, a memory,etc.). Alternatively, the computer-executable instructions may be storedas software code components on a direct access storage device array,magnetic tape, floppy diskette, optical storage device, or otherappropriate computer-readable medium or storage device.

Any suitable programming language can be used to implement the routines,methods or programs of embodiments of the invention described herein,including C, C++, Java, JavaScript, HTML, or any other programming orscripting code, etc. Other software/hardware/network architectures maybe used. For example, the functions of the disclosed embodiments may beimplemented on one computer or shared/distributed among two or morecomputers in or across a network. Communications between computersimplementing embodiments can be accomplished using any electronic,optical, radio frequency signals, or other suitable methods and tools ofcommunication in compliance with known network protocols.

Different programming techniques can be employed such as procedural orobject oriented. Any particular routine can execute on a single computerprocessing device or multiple computer processing devices, a singlecomputer processor or multiple computer processors. Data may be storedin a single storage medium or distributed through multiple storagemediums, and may reside in a single database or multiple databases (orother data storage techniques). Although the steps, operations, orcomputations may be presented in a specific order, this order may bechanged in different embodiments. In some embodiments, to the extentmultiple steps are shown as sequential in this specification, somecombination of such steps in alternative embodiments may be performed atthe same time. The sequence of operations described herein can beinterrupted, suspended, or otherwise controlled by another process, suchas an operating system, kernel, etc. The routines can operate in anoperating system environment or as stand-alone routines. Functions,routines, methods, steps and operations described herein can beperformed in hardware, software, firmware or any combination thereof.

It is also within the spirit and scope of the invention to implement insoftware programming or code an of the steps, operations, methods,routines or portions thereof described herein, where such softwareprogramming or code can be stored in a computer-readable medium and canbe operated on by a processor to permit a computer to perform any of thesteps, operations, methods, routines or portions thereof describedherein. The invention may be implemented by using software programmingor code, by using application specific integrated circuits, programmablelogic devices, field programmable gate arrays, optical, chemical,biological, quantum or nanoengineered systems, components and mechanismsmay be used. The functions of the invention can be achieved usingdistributed, or networked systems, components and circuits. In anotherexample, communication or transfer (or otherwise moving from one placeto another) of data may be wired, wireless, or by any other means.

A “computer-readable medium” may be any medium that can contain, store,communicate, propagate, or transport the program for use by or inconnection with the instruction execution system, apparatus, system ordevice. The computer readable medium can be, by way of example only butnot by limitation, an electronic, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic,infrared, or semiconductor system, apparatus, system, device, orcomputer memory. Such computer-readable medium shall be machine readableand include software programming or code that can be human readable(e.g., source code) or machine readable (e.g., object code). Examples ofnon-transitory computer-readable media can include random accessmemories, read-only memories, hard drives, data cartridges, magnetictapes, floppy diskettes, flash memory drives, optical data storagedevices, compact-disc read-only memories, and other appropriate computermemories and data storage devices. As one skilled in the art canappreciate, a computer program product implementing an embodimentdisclosed herein may comprise one or more non-transitory computerreadable media storing computer instructions translatable by one or moreprocessors in a computing environment.

Thus, the detailed description and the specific examples presentedherein, while indicating some embodiments of the invention, are given byway of illustration only and not by way of limitation. Varioussubstitutions, modifications, additions and/or rearrangements within thespirit and/or scope of the underlying inventive concept are possible andwill be apparent to those skilled in the art from this disclosure.

APPENDIX

According to certain embodiments, a content manager or “ContentManager”implementation is intended to provide an interface to any arbitrarystorage medium. The implementation of the content manager will providemethods for reading, writing, and deleting content within its particularstorage medium. Certain of these content managers are specialized typesof content managers that provide the ability for the content manager tobehave in an asynchronous manner. The asynchronous content manager maybe a class (e.g., “AsyncContentManager” class) that extends a parentcontent manager class (e.g., “ContentManager” class). The parent contentmanager class may further extend a base content manager class(“BaseContentManager” class).

In one embodiment, the ContentManager class or AsyncContentManager classmay include the following methods or interfaces:

-   -   getContentStatus

ContentStatus getContentStatus (ContentInfo contentToRestore,ContentDataRequest  request, ContentData.ContentDataSource requestedFormat, java.io.File destinationFile,  ServerPluginResourcesresources, java.lang.Object  additionalInfo) throws BaseTeamsExceptionReturns the current status of the progress of a content restorationinitiated by a restoreContent call.

Parameters:

contentToRestore—The ContentInfo object describing the content torestore. ContentInfo object that is supplied refers to the relevantobject_stacks record for that content. Fields in the ContentInfo objectmay correspond to columns in the objects_stacks table. For example, theContentInfo object may include a name field corresponding to theOBJECT_NAME in the OBJECT_STACKS table. The ContentInfo object may alsohave a contentPath field corresponding to the OBJECT_NAME_LOCATION fieldof the OBJECT_STACKS table and specifying the location of the asset.Another field of the ContentInfo object may be a contentMAnagerID fieldcorresponding to the CONTENT_MANAGER_ID field of the OBJECT_STACKS tablethat indicates that content manager associated with the asset.

request—An optional data request object that may provide additionalinformation about the content. This object may be null. This data comesdirectly from the issuer of the request and may be used for anyarbitrary data that needs to send to a content manager. For example, acontent manager that can support extracting segments of time-basedcontent like video, may support specifying in and out timecodes in therequest.

requestedFormat—The requested content retrieval format to put thecontent in. This is may be a request given by, for example a DAM aboutthe final format that the content is needed in. The content manager canignore the requested format and return the content in any format that isconvenient or acceptable. However, in certain embodiments, to increaseperformance, the content manager will return the content in therequested format.

resources—A resources object that contains references to resources likethe SecuritySession and a database connection

destination File—In the event the requested format is a file, thisparameter will indicate the final location of the file. The contentmanager may choose to write directly to this file or can return adifferent file and have the requestor copy/move the file to the finallocation.

additionalInfo—An optional informational object like a job id that canbe used to uniquely identify this restore request. This object may bereturned in the subsequent getContentStatus and getRestoredContentcalls.

Returns:

A status object indicating progress of the restoration.

Throws:

BaseTeamsException—Thrown if there is an error during the operation.

-   -   getRestoredContent

ContentData getRestoredContent (ContentInfo contentToRestore,ContentDataRequest  request, ContentData.ContentDataSource requestedFormat, java.io.File destinationFile,  ServerPluginResourcesresources, java.lang.Object  additionalInfo) throws BaseTeamsExceptionReturns the current status of the progress of a content restorationinitiated by the restoreContent call.

Parameters:

contentToRestore—The ContentInfo object describing the content torestore.

request—An optional data request object that may provide additionalinformation about the content. This object may be null. This data comesdirectly from the issuer of the request and may be used for anyarbitrary data that needs to send to a content manager. For example, acontent manager that can support extracting segments of time-basedcontent like video, may support specifying in and out timecodes in therequest.

requestedFormat—The requested content retrieval format to put thecontent in. This is may be a request given by, for example a DAM aboutthe final format that the content is needed in. The content manager canignore the requested format and return the content in any format that isconvenient or acceptable. However, in certain embodiments, to increaseperformance, the content manager will return the content in therequested format.

resources—A resources object that contains references to resources likethe SecuritySession and a database connection.

destination File—In the event the requested format is a file, thisparameter will indicate the final location of the file. The contentmanager may choose to write directly to this file or can return adifferent file and have the requestor copy/move the file to the finallocation.

additionalInfo—An optional informational object like a job id that canbe used to uniquely identify this restore request. This object may bereturned in the subsequent getContentStatus and getRestoredContentcalls.

Returns:

A ContentData object containing the content that was read.

Throws:

BaseTeamsException—Thrown if there is an error during the operation.

-   -   restoreContent

restoreContent (ContentInfo contentToRestore, ContentDataRequestrequest,  ContentData.ContentDataSource requestedFormat, java.io.File destinationFile, ServerPluginResources resources) throws BaseTeamsException, java.io.IOException

This method may restore the content for the specified ContentInfoobject. The ContentInfo object will provide the information the contentmanager needs to load the content. The content will be returned in aContentData object.

Parameters:

contentToRestore—The ContentInfo object describing the content torestore.

request—An optional data request object that may provide additionalinformation about the content. This object may be null. This data comesdirectly from the issuer of the request and may be used for anyarbitrary data that needs to send to a content manager. For example, acontent manager that can support extracting segments of time-basedcontent like video, may support specifying in and out timecodes in therequest.

requestedFormat—The requested content retrieval format to put thecontent in. This is may be a request given by, for example a DAM aboutthe final format that the content is needed in. The content manager canignore the requested format and return the content in any format that isconvenient or acceptable. However, in certain embodiments, to increaseperformance, the content manager will return the content in therequested format.

resources—A resources object that contains references to resources likethe SecuritySession and a database connection.

destination File—In the event the requested format is a file, thisparameter will indicate the final location of the file. The contentmanager may choose to write directly to this file or can return adifferent file and have the requestor copy/move the file to the finallocation.

Returns:

An optional informational object like a job id that can be usedinternally to uniquely identify this restore request. This object willbe returned in the subsequent getContentStatus and getRestoredContentcalls.

Throws:

BaseTeamsException—Thrown if there is an error during the operation.

java.io.IOException

In one embodiment, the ContentManager class or BaseContentManager classmay include the following methods or interfaces:

-   -   Initialize

void initialize (java.util.Map<java.lang.String,java.lang.String>attributesMap,  java.lang.String storageRoot) throws BaseTeamsExceptionA DAM may call this method to initialize a content manager. This methodmay be called once for every allocation of a content manager. Initializemay be called before any other method of the interface is called.

Parameters:

attributesMap—A map of key-value pairs. The data may come from anattributes table (e.g., content_managers_attr table). Any data neededduring initialization in this table may be placed in the table.

storageRoot—An optional storage root parameter. This parameter comesfrom the storage_root column of a table (e.g., content_managers table),and may be null. This value is intended to be used as a way to store anyvalue which the repository content is relative to, such as the rootdirectory of a file system.

Throws:

BaseTeamsException—Should be thrown by the implementation if the managercannot be initialized.

-   -   readContent

ContentData readContent (ContentInfo contentToRead, ContentDataRequestrequest,  ContentData.ContentDataSource requestedFormat, ServerPluginResources resources) throws BaseTeamsException, java.io.IOExceptionReads the content for the specified ContentInfo object. The ContentInfoobject will provide the information the content manager needs to loadthe content. The content will be returned in a ContentData object.

Parameters:

contentToRead—The ContentInfo object describing the content to read.

request—An optional data request object that may provide additionalinformation about the content. This object may be null. This data comesdirectly from the issuer of the request and may be used for anyarbitrary data that needs to send to a content manager.

requestedFormat—The requested content retrieval format to put thecontent in. This is may be a request given by, for example a DAM aboutthe final format that the content is needed in. The content manager canignore the requested format and return the content in any format that isconvenient or acceptable. However, in certain embodiments, to increaseperformance, the content manager will return the content in therequested format.

resources—A resources object that contains references to resources likethe SecuritySession and a database connection.

Returns:

A ContentData object containing the content that was read.

Throws:

BaseTeamsException—Thrown if there is an error during the operation.

java.io.IOException

-   -   renameContent

ContentInfo renameContent (java.lang.String newName, ContentInfocontentInfo,  ServerPluginResources resources) throws BaseTeamsException, java.io.IOExceptionThis method may rename the content for the specified ContentInfo object.The ContentInfo object will provide the details of the content torename.

Parameters:

newName—The name of the asset.

contentInfo—The ContentInfo object describing the content to rename.

resources—A resources object that contains references to resources likethe SecuritySession and a database connection

Throws:

BaseTeamsException—Thrown if there is an error during the operation.

java.io.IOException

-   -   storeContent

ContentInfo storeContent (ContentInfo contentToStore, ContentDataRequestrequest,  ServerPluginResources resources) throws BaseTeamsException, java.io.IOExceptionThis method may store the source content into the content repository.

Parameters:

contentToStore—The reference object that describes the content to store.The actual content will be stored in or referred to by the contentDatafield of this ContentInfo object. This object may contain the followingnon-null attributes: name, id, contentKind, and ContentData. Otherattributes may be optional at the time of storage and may notnecessarily be set. The ContentData object will contain the actualcontent to store. The source of the content (e.g., input stream, file,etc.) is determined by, for example, a return value of thegetPreferredStorageDataSource call.

request—An optional data request object that may provide additionalinformation about the content. This object may be null. This data comesdirectly from the issuer of the request and may be used for anyarbitrary data that needs to send to a content manager. For example, arequestor may set an attribute that indicates the requestor is locatedin the New York office. The content manager can then load the content toa New York file system instead of a London file system.

resources—A resources object that contains references to resources likethe SecuritySession and a database connection.

Returns:

A reference object that describes the data that was stored in thecontent repository.

A sourceReference object may be returned.

Throws:

BaseTeamsException—Thrown if there is an error during the operation

java.io.IOException

-   -   getPreferredStorageDataSource        ContentData.ContentDataSource getPreferredStorageDataSource        (ContentData.ContentDataSource existingSource)        This method may be called before each storeContent call. The        implementation will be given the existing source (e.g., stream,        file, etc.) of the content. The implementation can accept that        source or suggest another source. For example, the existing        source of data may be an InputStream. The implementation can        return the InputStream ContentDataSource indicating that sending        the InputStream is acceptable. It may also return a different        source like a file source.

Parameters:

existingSource—Source in which following storeContent should present thecontent to be stored.

Returns:

A data source.

-   -   deleteContent        void deleteContent (ContentInfo ref, ContentDataRequest request,        ServerPluginResources resources) throws BaseTeamsException,        java.io.IOException        This method deletes content. This method may permanently remove        the content from the repository.

Parameters:

ref—The reference object that identifies the content to delete.

request—An optional data request object that may provide additionalinformation about the content. This object may be null.

resources—A resources object that contains references to resources likethe SecuritySession and a database connection.

Throws:

BaseTeamsException—Thrown if there is an error during the operation.

java.io.IOException

What is claimed is:
 1. A system, comprising: a processor; anon-transitory computer readable medium comprising instructions for:obtaining an entity rule defining a parameter and a destination storagedistinct from a primary storage storing assets managed by the system;and determining a set of managed assets in the primary storage of thesystem associated with the entity rule by: evaluating the assets managedby the system using the parameter defined by the entity rule todetermine the set of managed assets are associated with the parameterand the set of managed assets are stored in the primary storage; storingthe determined set of managed assets in a destination storage associatedwith the entity rule; and causing management metadata associated witheach of the set of managed assets to be updated with a destinationstorage identifier associated with the destination storage, wherein themanagement metadata includes an asset identifier for that asset asstored in the destination storage
 2. The system of claim 1, wherein theparameter is a search query including the parameter.
 3. The system ofclaim 1, wherein the destination storage is a cloud based storagelocation.
 4. The system of claim 1, wherein storing the determined setof managed assets comprises accessing the destination storage through aconnector configured for a type of the destination storage.
 5. Thesystem of claim 1, wherein the management metadata includes anidentifier of the connector for the type of the destination storage. 6.The system of claim 1, wherein the destination storage is defined by theentity rule.
 7. The system of claim 1, wherein the parameter isassociated with content of an asset, a campaign associated with an assetor an expiration time associated with the asset.
 8. A method formanaging the distributed storage of managed content, comprising:obtaining an entity rule defining a parameter and a destination storagedistinct from a primary storage storing assets managed by the system;and determining a set of managed assets in the primary storage of thesystem associated with the entity rule by: evaluating the assets managedby the system using the parameter defined by the entity rule todetermine the set of managed assets are associated with the parameterand the set of managed assets are stored in the primary storage; storingthe determined set of managed assets in a destination storage associatedwith the entity rule; and causing management metadata associated witheach of the set of managed assets to be updated with a destinationstorage identifier associated with the destination storage, wherein themanagement metadata includes an asset identifier for that asset asstored in the destination storage
 9. The method of claim 1, wherein theparameter is a search query including the parameter.
 10. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the destination storage is a cloud based storagelocation.
 11. The method of claim 1, wherein storing the determined setof managed assets comprises accessing the destination storage through aconnector configured for a type of the destination storage.
 12. Themethod of claim 1, wherein the management metadata includes anidentifier of the connector for the type of the destination storage. 13.The method of claim 1, wherein the destination storage is defined by theentity rule.
 14. The method of claim 1, wherein the parameter isassociated with content of an asset, a campaign associated with an assetor an expiration time associated with the asset.
 15. A non-transitorycomputer readable medium, comprising instructions for: obtaining anentity rule defining a parameter and a destination storage distinct froma primary storage storing assets managed by the system; and determininga set of managed assets in the primary storage of the system associatedwith the entity rule by: evaluating the assets managed by the systemusing the parameter defined by the entity rule to determine the set ofmanaged assets are associated with the parameter and the set of managedassets are stored in the primary storage; storing the determined set ofmanaged assets in a destination storage associated with the entity rule;and causing management metadata associated with each of the set ofmanaged assets to be updated with a destination storage identifierassociated with the destination storage, wherein the management metadataincludes an asset identifier for that asset as stored in the destinationstorage
 16. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 15,wherein the parameter is a search query including the parameter.
 17. Thenon-transitory computer readable medium of claim 15, wherein thedestination storage is a cloud based storage location.
 18. Thenon-transitory computer readable medium of claim 15, wherein storing thedetermined set of managed assets comprises accessing the destinationstorage through a connector configured for a type of the destinationstorage.
 19. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 15,wherein the management metadata includes an identifier of the connectorfor the type of the destination storage.
 20. The non-transitory computerreadable medium of claim 15, wherein the destination storage is definedby the entity rule.
 21. The non-transitory computer readable medium ofclaim 15, wherein the parameter is associated with content of an asset,a campaign associated with an asset or an expiration time associatedwith the asset.